Hezbollah confirms leader Hassan Nasrallah is dead
Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday morning that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed after it carried out an airstrike in Lebanon.
In a post on X, the IDF said: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.”
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death in a statement released later on Saturday afternoon. The Lebanese militia group pledged to “continue its jihad in confronting the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon.”
The news of Nasrallah’s death came after the Israeli military said on Friday it had carried out a series of air strikes in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Nasrallah had led the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon for more than three decades.
His killing is a significant development in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and is likely to raise further fears about the potential for a wider Middle East war. Israel had already readied reservist troops on the Lebanese border.
Israel’s airstrikes on Friday destroyed several high-rise apartment buildings in the residential neighborhood of Haret Hreik in south Beirut. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said on X that six people had died and 91 people were injured in the strikes, according to an unofficial toll.
Television footage from Beirut on Saturday morning showed plumes of smoke billowing from damaged buildings.
Israel has increasingly targeted top Hezbollah officials and operatives in recent weeks in strikes that have killed hundreds of people. Hezbollah has hit back at Israel with a series of rocket attacks.
The IDF said the attack that killed Nasrallah was part of a precision strike by Israel’s air force on Hezbollah’s central headquarters, which it said was located underground below a residential building.
In a televised press conference Saturday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Israel was on peak alert and warned of challenging days ahead.
“Israel does not seek a wider escalation,” Hagari said, adding that the army was seeking to bring home hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and to ensure its borders are safe.
Israel’s government has ordered its citizens not to hold large gatherings of more than 1,000 people in the central area of the country from today.
In a series of posts on X, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, condemned the Lebanon strikes.
“Lebanon will make the trangressing, malicious enemy regret its actions,” a post on Khamenei’s account reads. Iran has funded Hezbollah for decades.
The United States said on Friday it had received no forewarning of Israel’s operation in the Lebanese capital this weekend. The US and allies including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany earlier this week issued a joint statement calling for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border.
